After farewelling Mal before he rode off to work, I left Miranda to start a drawing of Mal’s house. She was inspired to attempt a work that was similar in style to Howard Arkley’s suburban house artworks for obvious reasons (see here). I headed towards the coast before turning south and following the freeway cycle path out of the city. It reminded me very much of the freeway cycle path in Perth only with many more undulations.

I passed another cyclist up one particularly steep hill, ‘Good morning’ I chirped. ‘Is it?’ he retorted. I guess hills are not his thing.

Being on cycle lanes or cycle paths for nearly 50 km as I exited Adelaide made for a very pleasant morning. On one of the rail trails south of the city, ‘The Shiraz Trail’ I startled and was startled by a baby brown snake, at least I assume that is what it was, it was small and brown and I think we were as surprised as each other with the encounter. I stopped briefly to check I had not picked up an unexpected hitch hiker then journeyed on towards McLaren Vale.

I met Miranda there and we enjoyed pasties for lunch from a bakery on Main St. I then continued towards Hindmarsh Island, still following the rail trail for another few km’s before transferring to quite back roads and a bit of dirt.

After climbing the famous Willunga Hill it was a fairly easy ride the rest of the way to Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island. I stopped in Yundi on the way and purchased some cherries and cherry jam from Kerries Cherries; they were very surprised to see a cyclist in Yundi as the orchard is definitely situated on the road less travelled.

I arrived at the caravan park located on the north side of the island and waited for Miranda to return from shopping in Goolwa so we could prepare the evening meal. There was a bitterly cold southerly blowing through the campsite, so it was jeans and jumpers in the middle of summer!

As we were staying another night here, the next morning we decided to have a look around the island and  drove to the mouth of the Murray. Miranda was so inspired by the outlook that she got out her oil paints and a canvas and and left me to continue exploring the area. The sandbars at the mouth of the Murray have been constantly dredged and pumped since 2002 to ensure the river is not blocked off from the sea. This is necessary because for all these years there has not been enough flow in the river to prevent sandbars forming and blocking out the sea. If not for the constant dredging the whole Coorong ecosystem would be severely impacted. This has happened because too much water is pumped from the Murray Darling system for irrigation…..it is a complex problem.

We headed back to camp for a late lunch and some catching up on our blog posts…and we came to a big decision:

Important Update

So dear followers, friends, family and supporters, after nearly seven weeks of daily posts we have decided that a change of format and frequency is needed. From here on in we are planning weekly updates that will be a bit longer, but will hopefully provide rather more of an interesting narrative of our journey that you can catch up with during your leisurely weekends. We intend to post our weekly updates late Friday or early Saturday each week, and they will include our itinerary for the following week – if we are heading your way, get in touch, we are always keen to chat to new and old friends!

Also, if you belong to a club or organisation and would like us to come and give a presentation about our adventure, please let us know, we are happy to drop by anywhere nearby to our nightly stops. Please let your local media outlets know we are coming too – every bit of coverage helps our cause :).

If you want to follow my daily cycling progress you can on the spot tracker and those following Miranda’s daily art works can view them on Instagram @miranda1459.

Our itinerary for the next week is:

Jan 16 Day 48 – Hindmarsh Island to Wellington

Jan 17 Day 49 – Wellington to Heart of the Coorong Road House

Jan 18 Day 50-Heart of the Coorong Road House to Cape Jaffa

Jan 19 Day 51 – Cape Jaffa to Millicent

 

Jan 20 Day 52 – Millicent to Nelson

Jan 21 Day 53 –Nelson to Lake Surprise Camping Ground

Jan 22 Day 54 – Lake Surprise Camping Ground to Yambuk